Fire breaks out in classroom in building on MercyFirst campus in Syosset

About 80 firefighters responded to a fire in a classroom at a Syosset group home on Sunday.

Just after 4 p.m., a fire alarm on the second floor of the three-story building on the MercyFirst campus on Convent Road triggered a 911 call to the Syosset Fire Department, according to officials. No one was in the building at the time.

Emergency responders contained the fire, which was limited to a single classroom, within 30 minutes, and no one was injured, Nassau County Fire Marshal Michael Uttaro said.

The fire appears to have been caused by a malfunctioning air conditioner, according to Uttaro. "The fire does not appear to be suspicious,” he said.

Nassau County police and the fire marshal's office are investigating the cause of the fire.

The fire was in the Thomas F. Casey Center on the multi-acre MercyFirst campus. Char marks were visible Sunday evening around the edges of a broken window, and four additional windows were broken on the southeast side of the building. 

MercyFirst is a nonprofit that houses kids and young people in the child welfare and juvenile jails systems, as well as unaccompanied migrant children.

With Peter Gill